[Devils Workshop] “[SVN] Simplest Way To Restore (Revert) Deleted Files/Directories” and 1 more...

[SVN] Simplest Way To Restore (Revert) Deleted Files/Directories

Posted: 30 Jan 2011 06:30 AM PST

SVN (Subversion) is a version control system that is used by WordPress and thus by all our developers at rtCamp.

Many a times, while cleaning up our repositories, we end up deleting the wrong files and/or directories. If a top-level directory gets deleted accidentally, one usually starts sweating!

The simplest command to restore/revert deleted file/directory in SVN is:

svn cp http://svn.example.com/path/to/deleted/dir/@REVNUM http://svn.example.com/path/to/deleted/dir/

In the above command,

cp is shorthand for copy command
http://svn.example.com/ is the location of SVN-repo
/path/to/deleted/dir/ is actual path of file or directory to be restored (including filename/directory-name)
@REVNUM is the old revision number in which that file/directory was present last-time

Note that SVN paths for source and destination are same in such copy commands!

Example: Below is an example usage

svn cp http://svn.example.com/wordpress/themes/@286 http://svn.rtcamp.com/wordpress/themes/

Alternative Syntax:

If for some reason above command-syntax doesn’t work, try alternative syntax as below.

svn cp -r REVNUM http://svn.example.com/path/to/deleted/dir/ http://svn.example.com/path/to/deleted/dir/

FAQs

Q. How to find old REVNUM i.e. revision number?

There are many ways. The simplest one is, if you have noticed the accidental delete quickly enough, notice the current version number and try using a number smaller than one!

Alternatively, you can use SVN browser, just Google for one. If you are using NetBeans or any other nice IDE for development, try using for built-in SVN browser/tool in that IDE.

Q. Why don’t we just use ‘revert’ command in SVN?

‘revert’ command in SVN, rolls back local changes on local working copy only! Though I wish it should have been designed to roll-back changes in remote copies as well.

This unexpected behavior from revert command is one of reason why people starts sweating then they delete a folder in SVN accidentally.

Let me remind you, you can never loose data in SVN itself. So be calm and try some other article from Google search, just in case this doesn’t work for you!

-- This Post [SVN] Simplest Way To Restore (Revert) Deleted Files/Directories is Published on Devils Workshop .

Anyone Needs Quora Invitation!

Posted: 29 Jan 2011 10:30 PM PST

One of the best ways to look up information online about anything is to look up a related Wikipedia articles. In most cases the articles is updated and current along with being informative. For getting information which is more specific on various topics a useful method is to ask on forums or even on social networking websites.

Quora does something quite novel and that is it brings all these things together.

The problem with getting on Quora is that it is quite exclusive. By exclusive, I mean it does not allow you to sign-up automatically but only if you have an invitation.

This is sometimes a problem as many of your friend might not automatically want to be on Quora – afterall it is not Facebook or Gmail.

We at Devils’ Workshop have a few invites and thought we will share them with our readers.

Just send out a tweet about this post along with leaving a comment here. We will send out an invite to you. Below is an example of the tweet you can send.

Anyone Needs Quora Invitation! http://t.co/rLgAFLo via @devils_workshop

In your comments you can drop in the URL link of your tweet. Usually on Twitter if you click on the time/date you will be taken to the individual URL of your tweet.

See you soon on Quora.

Link: Quora

-- This Post Anyone Needs Quora Invitation! is Published on Devils Workshop .